Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Race Recap - San Diego!

So, I've been slacking on the blog a little bit the past week or so, but I feel like I have an excuse - I've been recovering from running the Rock and Roll San Diego half marathon on June 3!

The trip to San Diego was uneventful. We got to check in to the hotel early, which was really nice, and then we had lunch at a nearby cafe. Afterward we visited the expo and picked up our race packets - the shirt was the correct size, which is always a plus. I was also happy to note it wasn't a dark color - in the past my RNR shirts have been black or navy, making them pretty much useless as training shirts, since they are too hot for sunny workouts and too dark for running at night. This shirt is a nice light blue color. :)

My roommate for the trip ended up with a slight case of food poisoning, so I stayed in the room with her Friday night and Saturday during the day, taking the opportunity to rest, watch some TV, and read. In retrospect I'm really glad I did this, even though I didn't get to see many of the sights in SD - my foot was trying to get sore from the small(ish) amount of walking that we did on Friday and Saturday.

Sunday we had to wake up at 3:30AM to make the 4:15 shuttle to the start line. I am so not a morning person, but I managed to do OK, lol. We went through the port-a-potty line a couple times, and then lounged in the grass while waiting for the start, which was at 6:15. We lined up in the corrals after the start gun was fired and waited nearly an hour to cross the start line.

I ran with my friend for the first couple of intervals, and after that I took off on my own. I've never raced a half marathon solo before (The Husband has always been with me in the past, barring Nike, when I had 3 teammates with me instead). My intervals were kind of all over the place since I basically decided after the first couple of miles to just run and walk when I felt like it. I kept up a pretty good pace, with a few faster miles here and there.

The worst part of the race was the highway on/off ramp section - there was nowhere level to run, even on the shoulders, so you were running at a slight angle. Lots of people complained that their knees were bothering them because of this, and I was no exception.

Around mile 8 I caught my friend again and we did ~2 miles together before I had to peel off for a port-a-potty stop. There was a good band where I stopped - Danny and the Tramp, which made the waiting in line more enjoyable. Once I exited the "rest area" I was ready to get to the finish. I had about 3 or 4 miles left at that point, and this is where I started getting tired. Mile 10 felt like the longest mile of my life, and by mile 11 my whole body was just sore and tired - especially my low back/sacrum area.

As I approached the finish line I started to feel a great sense of accomplishment - I did it! I ran a half marathon (mostly) solo, and I didn't die, outpace myself, or anything! It was pretty exciting. I got my finish line photo made, grabbed some Cuties clementines, TruMoo chocolate milk, and headed for the Team in Training tent to get checked in. Then I got a half of a PB&J and a chocolate chip cookie and got on the bus back to the hotel.

My watch time (I stopped it for my 2 port-a-potty breaks and 1 short stop where I was mixing some Gatorade with water because it wasn't dilute enough) was 3:10:49, which is about average for me.

I just registered for my 7th half marathon yesterday, which will be October 7 in Lawton, OK. I'm taking some time to do other workouts right now, and training for that race starts in mid-July. :)